in sentiment. It was composed in part of men of the class who are prone to be "strong on the strong side," and who had distinguished themselves in bygone days by their zeal in the Confederate cause.

On the 21st of January, 1867, Governor Murphy sent to the senate his veto of a bill "to provide for the support of wounded and disabled soldiers, and for the support of indigent widows and children of deceased soldiers, and for the relief of indigent families of this state, and to furnish artificial limbs for maimed soldiers, and for other purposes named." This title might leave the impression that all wounded and disabled soldiers, and all indigent families were to be provided for; but the first section of the act was more specific. It appropriated "ten per centum of the revenue of the state annually, to constitute a fund for the relief of destitute, wounded, or disabled soldiers, not otherwise provided for by the United States Government, and for the support of indigent widows and children of deceased soldiers, not otherwise provided for by the United States." But the governor vetoed it. He assumed that the legislature designed by this act to honor the bravery and devotion, and reward the sufferings of those who fought against the government of the United States in the late rebellion, and also against the present state government. The bill, nevertheless, was passed over the veto, by a vote of twenty-one to one in the senate; and by sixty-four to seven in the house of representatives.

Early in February, 1867, the legislature passed "An Act to declare the rights of persons of African descent." This act was by far the most liberal and just of any passed by the Southern legislatures, prior to permanent reconstruction under the acts of Congress. One of its principal features appertained to contracts. Persons of color were authorized to give evidence; to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, convey, and assign real and personal property; to make wills and testaments; and to have full and equal benefit of the rights of personal security, personal liberty, and private property, and of all remedies and proceedings for the enforcement and protection of the that white persons then had. It enacted that they should not be subject to any other or different punishments than those prescribed for white persons; and that all laws should be applicable to all persons, without distinction of race or color. It repealed all laws relating to colored people, inconsistent with these provisions. The marriage relation, with all its legal obligations and rights, was established for the freed people. All who had lived together in that relation prior to emancipation were to be regarded lawfully married, and their children were made legitimate.

same,

The difficulty with those opposed to this act was the clause giving to negroes and mulattoes the same right to testify in the courts that white persons possessed. In other words, it allowed them to testify in cases where white persons alone were concerned. It subjected people of color to the same pains and penalties, and to no others, for crimes and breaches of the law,

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439

that white persons were subject to for like offense. It was among the last acts on the subject passed by any Southern legislature, under the temporary reconstruction which took place on the plans proposed by Presidents Lincoln and Johnson. It was for that reason more liberal than those which preceded it. The leaders of public sentiment in Arkansas had begun to understand the real temper of the North. They appreciated the necessity of conforming to it more nearly than was at first deemed essential. But when they became convinced that the popular power, the power behind the throne, was greater than the throne, they began to conquer, one by one, their prejudices. It was asserted that the legislature, by these acts, was prompted solely by a desire to legislate for the best interests of the white inhabitants of the state. No hopeful sentiment about the negro inspired these proceedings. It was in the same spirit that the editor of the leading journal of the state called upon the planters to make "fair, but stringent contracts with the freedmen." "Are they not," said the journalist, "our principal dependence? Must we not do the best we can with them, until such time as an increase of white laborers shall come into our state, and enable us to do without them? Then the hig estimate which they now place upon themselves will, by competition, be brought down, and the question with them will not, as now, be 'who shall I work for?' but, who will employ me?'" This sentiment manifests as little acquaintance with the principles of political economy as it does of regard for the welfare of the laboring classes, white and black. For the hope of drawing white laborers to the state in order to reduce wages by competition with negro labor was utterly fallacious. Are not the countries where the attractive forces of immigration are the most strenuous, those in which wages are high?

In February, 1867, the legislature passed "an act of pardon and amnesty" to all persons who, at any time after the sixth day of May, 1861, and before the fourth day of July, 1865, had committed any crime or misdemeanor against the State of Arkansas, rape only excepted, and who had not been convicted thereof before the passage of the act. This act of amnesty

was intended for the benefit of outlaws on both sides, who had committed murders and other crimes. It was very charitable. During the year 1867, almost to its close, Arkansas had more or less of distraction. The military were not hospitably entertained, as may be inferred from the reprimand by Gen. E. O. C. Ord, then chief commander, of Major Pierce, for his seizure of a newspaper which had criticised the soldiery. The registration of voters and the apportionment of delegates went on until the convention was called. Its delegates were nearly all radicals. Excesses threatened to engulf the state.

In December, 1867, the Democracy of Arkansas are aroused. That party declares for a white man's government. The convention meets on the 7th of January, 1868. The state continues to degenerate, under bad administration, until Congress takes notice. The Poland Committee are sent to the

rescue.

Then arises in Arkansas a man of mark! The present AttorneyGeneral of the United States, Augustus H. Garland is the man. Whether it is because the writer has been associated with this distinguished lawyer upon questions concerning the test oaths, or whether because of congenial temperament and long friendliness, it is con amore that this chapter concludes with a brief narrative of the life and merits of Augustus H. Garland. He fills a distinguished place in the history of the State of Arkansas, of which he has been Senator. He is destined to fill a larger place in the history of the country under the new Administration, of which he is the legal adviser. He was born on the eleventh day of June, 1832, in Tennessee. He was educated at Bardstown, Kentucky, a famous seat of learning at that time. During his educational nonage he had such influences as are associated with the names of Charles A. Wickliffe, James Guthrie, Felix Grundy, and "Ben." Harden. His habit of steady application, added to the keenness of his analysis, gave him rank along with the best lawyers of the Senate of the United States. He is modest, unassuming, sociable, and full of anecdote and humor. He has a square and solid frame, and although fifty-two years of age, looks like a more youthful man. He is evidently a man who has communed much with nature. He has a frank simplicity of character which is charming.

The incident which brought him before the public dates from a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1866. It involved the constitutionality of the test oath in Congress, which the author of this volume, with the aid of Senator Garland, has recently had repealed in some of its most obnoxious features. The iron-clad oath act was approved July 2, 1862. It prescribed that before any person could enter upon the duties of any office of the United States Government, he should take and subscribe that oath. A supplemental act was passed in 1865. Its provisions were extended to attorneys of United States courts. As stated in a former chapter of this volume, Senator Garland had been an attorney and counselor of the court before the war, in 1860. He was forbidden by the act of 1865 to practice after the war was over, having been a Senator in the Confederate Congress. Engaged in the discussion in the case and others of a similar nature at the same term of the court, were such eminent lawyers as Reverdy Johnson, Matt. H. Carpenter, Attorney-General Speed, Henry Stanbery, and Jeremiah S. Black. But for forensic and constitutional acumen, the (then) young lawyer bore away the palm, in his own case about the test oath. His argument was a masterly elucidation of the law, and the precedents; and although four of the judges dissented from the opinion of the court, which sustained three out of four of the points made by Mr. Garland, they gave him unstinted praise for his argument. But it was as governor of the State of Arkansas that Mr. Garland won his best trophies. Although he had been a Bell and Everett elector, and had made the fight for

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44I

the Constitution, the Union, and the enforcement of the laws,-when the secession ordinance of his state was adopted, he went manfully, though mournfully, with his Southern people. He was chosen to the provisional Congress which met at Montgomery, Alabama, in May, 1861. He assisted in framing the constitution of the Confederate States. This preliminary experience gave emphasis to his wise and sage advice when, in 1874, he overthrew the carpet-bag rule in Arkansas. It was his effort before the Poland Committee of the House which secured the majority report. When he became governor of Arkansas, he found the treasury bankrupt, and the state discredited. Its scrip sold for twenty cents on the dollar. It was not without a dire contest with President and Congress, and the Republican party in his state, that all differences were composed, and the state was lifted out of the black slough of ruin. Without opposition, he was preferred for the United States Senate. As was both natural and proper he became a member of the Judiciary Committee. In the line of his profession, with direct and forcible language and thought, he has defended in various cases involving the new Amendments and Civil Rights bill, the rights of his section under the Constitution. It has been claimed that he is a latitudinarian in his construction of the Constitution, and that he believes in the preamble as the "blanket clause" of the Constitution. Although he may not have forgotten some of his old Whig or Federal rules and ideas, he has acted with the Democratic party in the Senate, and is an active member of the Cabinet of the Democratic Administration. He belongs to no ultra school in his construction of the Constitution. He believes in what he calls the common sense interpretation of that instrument. He has never failed to display on every opportunity high executive ability, and in his speeches and opinions he has patiently, and with keenest observation and perspicuity, pursued a clear and brilliant order of argument, that has made his logic synonymous with rhetoric set on fire;— which is the true definition of forensic eloquence.

28

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU.

ACT CREATING IT-ITS PURPOSES AND SCOPE

SUPPLEMENTARY ACT PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S VETO OVERRULED - HIS OBJECTIONS TO THE PROPOSED LAW LARGE APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE BUREAU-THE COMMISSIONER AND HIS SUBORDINATES CHARGES PREFERRED AGAINST THE COMMISSIONER IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES BY FERNANDO WOOD OF NEW-YORK INVESTIGATION BY A COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE – MAJORITY AND MINORITY REPORTS ERECTION OF THE HOWARD UNIVERSITY — THE

BARRY FARM-DISASTROUS ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH A COLORED COLONY ON IT FAILURE OF THE FREEDMEN'S BANK - DISASTROUS CLOSE TO THE WHOLE SCHEME.

A

HISTORY of reconstruction, which failed to present the leading features of the Freedmen's Bureau and the character of its operations, would be incomplete. The measure for the creation of that bureau originated during the first session of the Thirty-eighth Congress. It became a law on the 3d of March, 1865. It was entitled, "An Act to establish a bureau for the relief of freedmen and refugees." It provided for such bureau being established in the War Department, to continue "during the present war of rebellion and for one year thereafter." The control of all abandoned lands in the states recently in rebellion, and of all subjects relating to freedmen and to refugees from the Confederate States, or from any district of country embraced in the territory covered by the operations of the army, was committed to this bureau under regulations to be prescribed by its head and to be approved by the President. The commissioner was to be appointed by the President at a salary of $3,000 per annum. was required to give bond in the sum of $50,000.

He

The Secretary of War was authorized by this law to issue provisions, clothing, and fuel for the immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their families. Assistant commissioners were to be appointed for each of the ten insurrectionary states.